FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT WATER SUPPLY PROJECT - PAGE 3

Ifirst met Bill Collins nearly 15 years ago, right at about the time people started learning what the Point Pleasant Pumping Station was all about. Collins was an early opponent of the water supply project and he helped organize the first protests against the Pump. I don't think I ever saw him stand up and make a speech. Collins preferred to leave the electrifying rhetoric to others. After the Pump fight was lost, Collins went back to living his life in Point Pleasant. I've seen him from time to time over the years.

Two Montgomery County water authorities offered yesterday to buy the Point Pleasant pumping station as well as another component of the water supply project in an effort to speed up construction. The North Penn and North Wales water authorities said in a letter that they would be willing to assume construction costs of the pumping station and the 3.9-mile combined transmission main. In addition, the two authorities offered to pursue an agreement with Bucks County that would enable them to take over ownership of the components.

The Bucks County Democratic administration was turned out of office yesterday by a strong challenge mounted by Republicans Andrew L. Warren and Mark S. Schweiker. The victory by Warren and Schweiker apparently indicates that the electorate is weary of the fight against the Point Pleasant water project waged by Democratic Commissioners Carl F. Fonash and Lucille M. Trench. Fonash and Trench swept into office on their opposition to the project four years ago. They have not backed away from their promise to halt construction of the project, despite setbacks in the courts.

Delays in construction of the Point Pleasant water system due to demonstrations and court challenges added about $1 million to the cost of the project, according to figures released yesterday by the Bucks County commissioners. The commissioners yesterday approved settlements with contractors for 178 days of work missed in 1987 and 1988 while the courts and regulatory agencies were deciding whether to approve construction or while demonstrators were refusing to let crews onto the site.

Construction of the Point Pleasant water project could resume as early as the first week in May under a court order issued yesterday by Bucks County President Judge Isaac S. Garb. Garb ruled that a court-appointed special master has until April 28 to determine whether the bids opened by the Neshaminy Water Resources Authority last month meet the specifications for the project. If the special master rules the bids are in compliance, Garb ordered that the NWRA must immediately award construction contracts for the Point Pleasant pumping station.

A federal judge Friday awarded Allentown slightly more than $1 million in its suit against an engineering firm that designed a water intake system that failed. But Senior U.S. District Judge E. Mac Troutman found that Allentown was not entitled to an additional $3 million in damages to reimburse it for the interest on a bond the city issued to finance a supplemental water supply project. The city is content to take the money and be done with the ordeal, which has dragged out in court for about four years.

The Point Pleasant pumping station will make its first delivery of water today when Philadelphia Electric Co. releases 6.4 million gallons of Delaware River water from the Bradshaw Reservoir for a test of the $110 million water supply system. That first release of water will be met by quite a welcoming committee. Joseph F. Paquette Jr., president, chairman and chief executive officer of PE, is expected to be at the facility's "outfall" structure in Bedminster Township when the first gush of water empties into the east branch of the Perkiomen Creek.

Sometime during the summer of 1989, somebody is going to throw a switch, twist a dial, pull a lever or do whatever else it takes to start up operation of what may be considered Bucks County's most notorious, but everlasting public works project. Twenty years after leaving the designer's drawing table, 10 years after receiving its major regulatory approvals and five years after bringing down an administration, the Point Pleasant water project appears headed for completion in either late June or early July.

Bucks County Democrats awakened what had been a quiet campaign for county commissioners last week by invoking a word that always has been near and dear to their hearts: referendum. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the referendum on the Point Pleasant water project, which turned out to be a watershed event in Bucks County politics. At the time, the incumbent GOP commissioners fought hard against slating the "Pump" referendum, then were swept out of office by the tidal wave of opposition to the massive water supply project.

Leonard Martin Fraivillig, 87, of Sarasota, Fla., died Tuesday in Sarasota. He was the husband of the late Esther (Hartman) Fraivillig. Fraivillig was an engineer for Northampton County from 1963 to 1973, designing and supervising the building of more than 20 county bridges. He also headed projects to design and construct the sanitary sewer systems for Slatington and Hellertown. He founded and owned his own civil engineering and surveying firm in Bethlehem for more than 30 years, retiring in 1976, and was engineer for Hellertown, Fountain Hill, Lower Saucon and Bethlehem Townships, where he designed several municipal sewerage systems.